Brush Traction
Henry Hughes had been operating at the Falcon Works since the 1850s, producing items such as brass and iron cast parts for portable engines and thrashing machines.
[8] The adoption of steam tram engines in the UK was very limited, though the company did make some sales abroad, for example in Paris and Lille.
In February 1881, a shareholder and creditor asked that the voluntary winding up of the company should proceed under the supervision of the court, and an order was granted.
In July 1882, they provided a tram engine (Falcon works number 43) for testing on the Burnley tramways, which during a late night trial suffered a condenser rupture scalding several people.
Production finished after World War I and the company concentrated on transport-related electrical equipment, including tramcars, trolleybuses and battery-operated vehicles.
[19] Several examples survive, one at the National Slate Museum, Llanberis, three of them went to Hythe Pier, Railway and Ferry, of which two of these remain.
[21] When British Railways began to replace its fleet of steam engines, Brush entered the market for main line diesel-electric locomotives.
[23] As part of Hawker Siddeley Electric Power Group, it then passed to BTR plc and became Brush Traction.
In April 2021, Wabtec announced the Loughborough factory would close with reduced work volumes making the site unsustainable.
[52] In 1949, they offered 25 standard bodies for their chassis, including a mobile canteen or ice cream parlour, which they exhibited at the Dairy Show that year.
[53] Production of 4-wheeled battery electrics ceased in 1950, although the company continued to manufacture the 3-wheeled Brush Pony milk float and their range of industrial trucks.
They maintained enough spare parts to allow them to service 4-wheeled vehicles for a further 10 years and sold the remainder to Hindle, Smart and Co of Manchester, who made Helecs milk floats.
In order to rationalise their operations, construction of Brush industrial trucks was transferred to the Morrison-Electricar factory in Tredegar.
Although most of the vehicles involved were industrial trucks, the 3-wheeled Brush Pony milk float was also included, and a number of these were subsequently manufactured at Tredegar.
[55] An early Brush Pony 3-wheeled milk float, formerly operated by United Dairies and dating from 1947, is on display at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu.
[56] A Brush 10/14 cwt Mark II bread van, also dating from 1947, and formerly owned by the Co-operative Wholesale Society, can be seen at The Transport Museum, Wythall.
It was displayed at the East Anglia Transport Museum from around 1973, and then moved to a collection of battery-electric vehicles at Blandford, Dorset in 1983.
It was used to transfer laundry between Dartry's branches, and to service a number of large hotels in Dublin city centre until their decline in the 1970s.
[59] A de Havilland Dominie DH.89 that Brush built in 1946 for the RAF is preserved at Tangmere Military Aviation Museum on the West Sussex coast.
[citation needed] The large statue of a falcon from Brush's Loughborough works is now displayed in the exhibition hall at the National Tramway Museum in Crich, Derbyshire.
